Deposit Receipts & Privacy Concerns
by Mary Beth Guard, BOL Guru
Question: One of our employees has an account at another financial institution. She made a deposit to her account today at their drive-in window. After processing her deposit, she was told in order to give her a deposit receipt she would have to provide some form of identification with her picture on it, or they could block out privacy
information. She told them to just block out the information. The following information was blocked out with a black magic marker: address, balance and account #. What are your thoughts on this?
Answer: There can be privacy problems associated with providing a receipt for a deposit, depending upon what information is shown on the receipt. This may be an effective method of guarding against them.
Let's say Joe is an information broker and he wants to find out how much money Robert has in his account. Joe may write a check payable to Robert (or even use cash) and go to Robert's bank and pose as Robert, saying "I'd like to make a deposit into my account. Unfortunately, I don't have the account number with me." With a few snippets of information about Robert, the teller will likely look up the account number and accept the deposit (thinking that a thief wouldn't be putting money into an account!). If the teller hands Joe a receipt, thinking he's Robert, she may be giving him Robert's account number or even the balance in his account, depending on what that particular bank's receipts show.
Another scenario would be where a parent is depositing funds into the account of a grown son or daughter. You cannot lower the protection for the customer's privacy just because it appears there is a loving family relationship. The kid may adore his/her parents, but still not want them to have a clue about the account balance.
Some bankers have said that where the depositor's identity cannot be confirmed as being the account owner, they will mail the official receipt to the account address and will simply tender a handwritten receipt to the depositor, showing no more than the information the depositor already knew. So, for example, if the depositor knows the account number, but not the name, the handwritten receipt would just show the account number, date, and amount of deposit. If the depositor knew the name of the account holder, but not the account number, the receipt should just show the account holder's name, amount of deposit, and date of deposit.
BankersOnline is a free service made possible by the generous support of our advertisers and sponsors. Advertisers and sponsors are not responsible for site content. Please help us keep BankersOnline FREE to all banking professionals. Support our advertisers and sponsors by clicking through to learn more about their products and services.
Print Friendly!
Email This Article!
Discuss NOW!
